About Me

I'm just me - a solitary wanderer who trekked across much of the world and recently retired to a small farm in the Ozarks.
My checkered past includes time spent as an Army officer, high school teacher and principal, real estate broker, child protection worker and administrator, and social worker with the U.S. military.
Over the years I have resided in a variety of places including Missouri, Virginia, Okinawa, Kansas, Kentucky, and Arizona. I have also traveled to Germany, Mexico, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Great Britain, Belize, Guatemala, Taiwan, Guam, South Korea, Vietnam, and numerous islands in the Caribbean - including Cuba.
I have ridden in a Russian ambulance, hitch-hiked across Moscow late at night, fought an ostrich, celebrated New Year's at a street party in Hanoi, and bicycled across the Caribbean. My travels have taken me to Ground Zero in Hiroshima, the Bolshoi Ballet, China Beach, and the White House kitchen.
The nine things in life that I am most proud of are my children: Nick, Molly, and Tim, and my grandchildren: Boone, Sebastian, Judah, Olive, Willow, and Sullivan.
Life has been very good to me indeed!

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Pa Rock's Babies

by Pa RockFarmer in Late Spring

Today is Father's Day, and while I wish the three most important fathers in my orbit well - Nick Macy, Scott Files, and Tim Macy - young men who are responsible for the care and well-being of my grandchildren, it is my own little family here at The Roost that I want to highlight this special day.

There are currently ten babies in residence at The Roost, five fatherless kittens and five goslings who are learning the ways of the world without benefit of parents.

The kittens were born in the barn on May 8th and are just now learning to eat solid food. Three already have homes waiting in the Kansas City area, and the other two are hoping to be adopted as well. The five are the first litter of Fiona, a good mother who came to the farm last year as a kitten herself. Fiona was brought in to be a mouser, a field at which she excels. She stays in the barn and other farm outbuildings - and never ventures far those environs. Young animals, like young humans, don't always make the best of parents, but Fiona is proving to be an outstanding mother.

The kittens were several weeks old before I finally came upon them in the barn. I was in the process of getting them used to being handled by humans when, this past Thursday, they suddenly all disappeared. After a search of the barn, I determined that they were gone. I was hopeful Fiona had moved them and that they had not been eaten by a predator. I was relieved yesterday afternoon when all five came tumbling out of a shed that is attached to the chicken coop. Their new living quarters have easy access to a nice penned-in area where they can play in the sunshine in relative safety. They are happy, and healthy, and growing like cats.

The goslings, who are about three months old, are the size of adult geese - but still babies. When I step outside and they see me, they come running, with wings flapping, and honking "Play with us! Play with us!" They follow happily along wherever I go on the farm. The young geese are just learning about their ability to pick on poor Fiona, but to her credit, she fights back and does not cower before them.

I have also contracted for the delivery of a little goat, a male Nigerian, who should arrive, fully weened, just before all of my grandchildren get here in early July. The Roost will be rockin' then - you betcha it will!